Thesis subject

Software Architecture Design for Supply Chain Management Systems

Level: MSc

Research area/discipline: Software Engineering

Prerequisites: Software Engineering (INF-32306), Programming in Python (INF-22306)

Short description:

A supply chain is defined as a system consisting of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials, and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Due to the increased global competition many companies are forced to improve their efficiency of the supply chain using systematic supply chain management (SCM) approaches. The underlying idea for SMC is based on the observation that practically every product that reaches an end user represents the cumulative effort of multiple organizations defining the supply chain. Supply chain management, as such, is the active management of supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. SCM activities typically include the management of the flow of materials, information, and finances in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Further, SCM involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies.

To provide an effective SCM it is important to develop the appropriate software architecture for it. In this project you will first to a stakeholder analysis for developing SCMs. Subsequently you will analyze software architecture design and modeling approaches and principles and apply this to the design of SCM. In particular you will derive different software architecture views for SCM systems. The result of the project is a software architecture design for SCM that is aligned to the identified stakeholder concerns.

For more information: bedir.tekinerdogan@wur.nl